Grow Your Own Needs Your Help! Take Part in our Poll

[RuthC]

As the time for sowing gets ever nearer, we'd like to hear from you about your techniques. We want to find out how many of you sow under cover in a greenhouse or polytunnel or propagator and how many sow directly into beds outside. In response to this thread, please also explain why you choose your particular method and what the pros and cons are.

Your responses may be published in our April issue's Over to You pages.

[Flummery]

Horses for courses! I sow french beans in pots or root trainers so I can ensure that each station has a bean when I plant out after the frosts. I sow toms and chillies in small pots on the windowsill wth a poly bag over. I've got chillies through now, in mid-January. I also sow brassicas in modules. I think they do better after transplantation. Broad beans are fine going in direct, either side of a spade-wide trench. I also sow salad greens both direct and in modules.

[snuffer]

It depends on the crop. I always sow runner beans in pots under cover in order to protect the seedlings from any late frosts. The hardier broad bean is always a direct sowing. It is a good idea to sow a few extra seeds inbetween the rows. The extra plants can then be used to cover any gaps in the rows where seeds have failed to germinate.

Some young plants, like parsnips, do not respond well to being trnsplanted and so these are always a direct sowing. Sow thinly in order to avoid desturbing young plants too much when thinning out. However, don't sow too thinly or the notoriously poor germination rate of parsnip seeds will leave you with gaps in the rows.

[Birdie Wife]

I don't have a polytunnel but I use my propogator for those crops which need an early start (eg chillies). I sow as much as I can outside, even though I know the crops will be later, because it's less hassle, and I think the seedlings are healthier overall for being grown in more severe conditions. There's nothing worse than coddling your little veg plants only to watch them all die a death in a late frost.

[Two_Sheds]

Direct: spuds, carrots, coriander, chitted parsnip, chitted beans & peas, onion sets

Heated prop Jan-March: celeriac, chillies, tomatoes, early onions, early flowers

In modules (cold greenhouse) March onwards. All pumpkins, some onion sets, garlic, brassicas

[FionaH]

I moved this so grapes could respond.

[Hans Mum]

Direct: spuds, carrots, coriander, chitted beans & peas, onion sets

Heated prop Jan-March: chillies, tomatoes, early onions, early flowers

In modules (cold greenhouse) March onwards. All pumpkins, some onion sets, garlic

i do wot TS does

[vicky]

A bit of everything really. Some of the more tender crops (eg tomatoes and chillis) need to be started off with a bit of warmth and earlier than you'd get that by sowing outside - so they have to be sown under cover of some sort (a windowsill is almost as good as a propagator).
Other crops are more cold tolerant (eg carrots, onions) so they can go straight outside.
You can also get a head start by sowing crops such as lettuce under cover...and planting out small plants rather than direct sowing means you can protect from slugs more easily

[Glutton4...]

I start most things off in seed trays in the Greenhouse, then pot up later and transplant when they're bigger, or when space allows. Later in the year, when I'm more certain of my available space I'll sow outdoor too. But I'm still new to all this, so will probably adapt as I learn more.

Over the last year friends have given me round a hundred 2ltr plastic bottles to use as mini-cloches, so my early sowings should benefit this year.

[SarzWix]

Early and tender crops are sown into either seed trays or cell trays in a heated propagator, this includes onions, tomatoes, chillis and peppers, followed later in the season by cucumbers, beans, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes, melons and sweetcorn. This is because I achieve a better success rate, and so less wastage of seeds.

Peas, broad beans, salad crops, all brassicas, later onion sowings and leeks are usually made undercover into degradable pots or cell trays, but without heat. This helps to protect from slugs, and competition from weeds.

Carrots, parsnips, beetroot and other root crops are sown direct, as they don't really like to be transplanted.

[zazen999]

Carrots, parsnips, onion sets and potatoes are sown direct. Everything else is in modules, roottrainers or card tubes.

[Snadger]

I like to sow the majority of my brassicas in seed beds outdoors. They don't need watering as often as module sown plants and I think that by breaking the tap root when transplanting it forces them to put out lateral roots which stabilise the plant. They also 'stand' in the rows better and can be transplanted as space becomes available.

Parsnips, carrots, swedes,mooli and onion/shallot sets are all planted in situ.

Everything else is either started in a propagator, on windowsill or in the greenhouse.

[Pies]

Have to laugh the thread reads

GYO needs your..

Snadger

[solway cropper]

I don't use a propagator because I have three south facing windowsills, each with a radiator underneath. That's where tender stuff like toms, cukes and peppers gets started. The south facing lean-to greenhouse is normally a good few degrees warmer than the outside air so most other stuff goes in trays or modules in there. I don't sow much direct in the soil apart from carrots, beetroot, swedes and salad stuff....and tatties, of course.

[bramble]

Anything that needs a long growing season goes in the heated prop in Jan.
This year it will just be peppers and chillies, followed about 2 weeks later by toms as I don't have any space for extra crops this year.